Twice Lost, Once Found
by Winged Enchantress
Summary: A story of a special someone who had not existed in their lives long enough to mention. COMPLETE!
1. Something New

**Twice Lost, Once Found**

An Inu-Yasha fanfic

_A story of a special someone who did not exist in their lives long enough to mention._

**Chapter One: Something New**

It had begun like any other adventure: Kagome came through the well with her usual giant bag of stuff and Inu-Yasha yelled at her for being late. Miroku and Sango sighed at the two's endless bickering and Shippo was just happy to have Kagome back and he didn't have to hang around with Inu-Yasha anymore.

When Kagome had beaten Inu-Yasha's pointless argument down, she went to bid the elderly priestess Kaede greetings. Lady Kaede was sitting outside by her herb garden. She had great trouble standing, but she didn't complain. She was too stubborn to complain about an ailment.

Kagome sighed secretly to herself when Inu-Yasha went to pull the old priestess onto her feet. Kaede's spirits had been down since she got word of the reincarnated Kikyo being incinerated in Naraku's deadly miasma. Her age was beginning to catch up with her. Inu-Yasha's spirit's always seemed down too when they were in the village now-a-days. Kagome thought that perhaps that's why he yelled at her so much for being late.

"So, which way are we headed today?" Shippo asked with a cheerful inquisition from the basket on Kagome's bike.

"We haven't heard anything new about Naraku." Sango commented.

"Or the sated jewel shards," added Miroku.

"Or anything!" Inu-Yasha groaned in annoyance. "Let's just pick a direction and go. We're bound to find something."

Kagome smiled, humoring her half demon companion as she walked along side her bike. The day was warm and sunny, and even if all they did was have a pleasant walk and a picnic, it would be a nice calm in the aftermath of so much stress. Looking up at the sky as she walked along the ridge she said, "Yeah, let's keep going and see if we can find a new paAAA!"

Without warning, Kagome's bike jumped on a rock and teetered over to the side, the weight of Kagome's bag sending the bike and herself over the edge of the path and cascading down a steep, grassy decline.

"Kagome!" Everyone shouted as they darted and slid down the ridge after her.

Kagome and the bike finally skid to a stop at the bottom of the ridge. The bike struck a tree and Shippo was slingshotted into the woods. Kagome sat up slowly, rubbing her backside. "Ow. What the-"

"Kagome, are you all right?" Inu-Yasha asked as he landed at the bottom of the ridge.

"Oh no!" Kagome squealed in terror.

"What?" Inu-Yasha leapt around looking for the threat.

Kagome was examining the back of her skirt. "I hate grass stains!"

Inu-Yasha fell flat on his face before leaping back onto his face shouting, "You could've gotten seriously hurt and you're complaining about stains! What is it with you woman!"

"Hey!" Kagome got up and an argument was thrown once again into full swing. Sango and Miroku who had just reached the bottom of the ridge sighed to themselves. "Not again."

"Will those two ever be at peace with each other?"

Shippo was awakening from his concussion while all of this was going on. He awoke slowly and groggily at first, but was then thrown into a full out panic when he realized that he was hanging from a tree branch by his kimono. His shouting aroused Inu-Yasha and Kagome from their fighting.

Shippo's struggles were frantic for a moment, then he paused and looked around. He was hanging over an overgrown path of some sort. It was narrow and most of it was filled in with wild grasses and shrubs. Shippo was in the middle of feeling perplexed when Kagome reached up and slipped him down from the branch.

"There you go, Shippo."

"Kagome, look!" Shippo pointed down the old path.

"This must've been a hunting trail, judging by its size." Sango suggested.

"Looks like it hasn't been used in years." Miroku pointed out.

Inu-Yasha sniffed the air. "It doesn't smell like it hasn't be used in years."

"Let's go down it!" Kagome chimed, thrilled with their good fortune. Inu-Yasha looked at like she was a crazy lady. Kagome continued to smile. "It'll be something new!"

Inu-Yasha's will to argue was destroyed by Kagome's overwhelming joyful smile, the kind that conjures up little sparkles. Miroku and Sango smiled back. "Kagome's charm wins again."

With Shippo in her arms, Kilala in Sango's, Miroku along side her, and Inu-Yasha grumbling in the back with Kagome's bike, they headed down the old trail into a new adventure.

-------------------------------------------------------

Yo! This will be a short little tale like my other Inu-Yasha fanfic: Second Try for Love. This one will be more meaningful, though, 'cause it will explain things! I like making up fanfics that explain things that aren't explained in the series. My other ones are really long and not written. This one will be short; Maybe four or five chapters.

So review them, please, so I know it's worth my time.

-------------------------------------------------------

I do not own Inu-Yasha. It's Rumiko Takahashi's… At least it's not Yu Watase's. She's a jerk to her characters.


	2. Champion's Shrine

**Twice Lost, Once Found**

An Inu-Yasha fanfic

_A story of a special someone who did not exist in their lives long enough to mention._

**Chapter Two: Champion's shrine**

The trail was long and not very well lit since the forest seemed to be getting denser. Inu-Yasha had relocated to the front of the line a few times to clear out fallen trees and obtrusive bushes.

"Hmm... these bushes look like wild strawberries. Maybe this was a berry-picking trail or something." Sango observed.

"Do you recognize any of this, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked, glancing around.

"No. I think we've ever passed through this way before."

"I remember seeing farmland in this direction when flying over. I don't remember seeing anything like a village, though."

After a little ways of walking and attempting to guess where the path was leading them, Kilala started to growl.

"What is it, Kilala?" Sango asked. "Are there demons nearby?"

Inu-Yasha stopped and began to tense up. Miroku didn't look too happy either. Sango followed as she began to feel it. Even Kagome began to feel something.

"What is it, Inu-Yasha?"

"I don't smell any demons nearby," he hissed. "It's still faint, but I can feel a powerful demonic aura."

"As can I," Miroku commented.

"Me too," whispered Sango.

"I don't feel any jewel shards," murmured Kagome, glancing around.

"And it doesn't feel like it's moving," said Miroku, taking a step to the side.

Inu-Yasha grinned in his devilish way. "Then we're gonna have to go to it!"

They talked Inu-Yasha out of sprinting into trouble, since they had no idea what was going on. They quickened their pace, looking around expectantly as they marched forward.

"That's weird," Inu-Yasha said smugly as they went. "The aura's getting stronger, but I can't smell anything."

They all glanced over at Inu-Yasha with his arms crossed. "I can smell old demons that aren't here any more, and humans, but I can't smell whatever's giving off that aura."

"Maybe it's disguising its scent." Miroku suggested.

"Or maybe it's being held in something, like that demon held in that scroll in the village of the women," Sango suggested.

"We'll know soon enough," Inu-Yasha growled. The path was getting wider and was looking slightly more used. Up ahead was something of a clearing. They were all starting to get very on edge when they heard giggling. Kagome blinked in surprised when two small children ran by in the clearing, chasing a ball.

In this clearing at the end of the trail was a small collection of houses. It was the mere shadow of a village. One that, at one time, must've been bigger than Kaede's.

"It looks like an abandoned village." said Sango, examining the bare spots on the ground where houses use to be.

"Or a private residence," said Miroku looking out at the 3 still standing structures in the shade of the trees and the farmland.

Shippo moved up to Kagome's shoulder as she looked around. "Nothing seems out of the ordinary."

Inu-Yasha ditched Kagome's bike at the opening of the clearing and had moved on to looking confused. "Then what's with the aura?"

The group turned to where they felt the aura. There was another path off this clearing that also looked overgrown, but not nearly as much as the path they had just walked down.

They were all about to stroll down it to see what was up when a feeble shout came from behind them.

"No! You mustn't go to the Champion's Shrine."

They all turned around to meet an old man standing next to one of the houses.

"Champion's Shrine?"

----

The scene changed, as they often do, to the group all gathered inside the old man's house, set down with a good meal. The two children they had seen before ran around back giggling and a middle-aged woman who they hadn't seen before was cooing a small child and calling to them at same time. A middle-aged man whose youthful charm hadn't completely worn away was helping the old man with tea.

The old man spoke. "I live here with my son and his family." he smiled a bit in his old man way, his jaw still holding all his teeth. "Or, rather, they live here with me."

"Sir? What happened to this village?"

"Yes, and what is the Champion's Shine?"

The old man gazed into the fire for a minute and they waited as patiently as they could.

"A long time ago this use to be a prosperous village; small, but prosperous and peaceful. It had many protectors. They say the Gods became jealous of us and sent a powerful demon to attack to village. A young priestess sealed the demon away inside the Champion's Shrine and was never seen again."

"That's not true, father." The middle-aged man interrupted, re-serving rice. They all turned their attention to him. "I saw her when I was young. A brave warrior had entered the shrine to challenge the demon there, but he failed. I saw the priestess for an instant when she appeared to seal the shrine back up again."

The group was all very interested. The old man nodded and their attention shifted again. "Many confident humans and many demons, as well, have come to slay the demon within the shrine, lured by the legends and the aura. The spirit of the priestess remains there to make sure the evil within the shrine never escapes."

The group was left in a sort of daze. The old man fell silent and the meal ended. They were all invited to stay the night. The house they were currently in was the old man's. The son and his family stayed in the house next door and the third structure turned out to be the storehouse.

They all gladly accepted the invitation, since they had been walking the entire day. They stayed in the old man's house; the men in one room, the women in another. No one could sleep, though. The story of the priestess and the powerful demonic aura kept them awake.

"Can't sleep?" Sango asked as Kagome finally sat up.

"Not a wink. You?"

Sango shook her head. "I wonder if the others could sleep."

Sango's question was quickly answered when she and Kagome heard footsteps outside. The two girls and the fox child looked at each other and hurried to their feet. Still in their pajamas, they stuck their heads out the sliding door. Inu-Yasha and Miroku were outside, also in their pajamas (Inu-Yasha wears his normal cloths. Miroku was in something close enough to pajamas). They were about the ask what was going on when they spotted the old man standing outside, starring at the little path they had almost walked down: the path that led to the shrine.

They all looked at the path in the darkness.

"Sir," Miroku asked. "How long ago did the priestess seal away the demon that attacked the village?"

The old man was peering through the darkness to the shrine he couldn't see. "It was in my youth, almost sixty years ago."

"So you knew her?"

It looked as if the old man would've cried if Miroku had asked him this question sixty years ago, but now the old man just smiled. "I loved her."

They starred at the old man as he went on. "We all did. What a beauty she was; snow-white; but her heart was untouchable, it was so pure. Men feared to pursue her for fear that they would tarnish her. She was extremely honorable, extremely respected, kind, and incredibly powerful for one so young." His face looked down for the first time. "We were sad to lose her."

There was a pause as the old man finally broke himself away and returned to his house. His son was there to meet him.

The persons in the group still outside were all thinking the same thing, but it was Kagome who said it aloud. "That sounds an awful lot like Kikyo.

When the morning sun rose and the group was gathering to prepare for breakfast, Inu-Yasha looked up from his seat against the wall. "I'm going to defeat the demon in the shrine."

Kagome was the only one in the room at the time. She turned to Inu-Yasha who wouldn't look at her. "I'll free the spirit of the priestess there," his eyes shined.

Kagome knew what he was thinking but didn't say anything, she just smiled at him, a smile he couldn't see, and left to help gather wood.

_A priestess trapped by her duty. _

-------------------------------------------------------

Can you guess what's going to happen yet? It's a short little fanfic so how complex can it be, right? Complex or not, I'm gonna add some pieces to some puzzle out there. It's what I do.

Did anyone see those pages on where Sesshoumaru runs into his mom? His mom's a jerk! IT'S NOT SUPPOSE TO WORK LIKE THAT! AAARRRHHGG!

-------------------------------------------------------

I do not own Inu-Yasha, Rumiko Takahashi does… I don't think I could draw or write that many manga.

------------------------------------------------------

Thank you, Damki, my loyal reviewer for reviewing me. Having reviews makes me happy. You'll have to help me rewrite this one. All the plot's there, but I'm not sure how much I like the writing style…. I want to think of a better summary too. Mine's a little short and not entirely accurate.

-------------

THANK YOU! COME AGAIN!


	3. Spirit of a Priestess

**Twice Lost, Once Found**

An Inu-yasha fanfic

_A story of a special someone who did not exist in their lives long enough to mention._

**Chapter Three: Spirit of a Priestess**

The demonic aura being emitted from the shrine was immense. With little to no word to the old man and his family, the team all headed straight for Champion's Shrine.

"Why the heck are you guys coming?" Inu-yasha shouted at the four humans following him. "I can beat this stupid demon on my own!"

Miroku put on a determined face. "I cannot let my opportunity to see a woman of such beauty to slip away."

Sango whacked Miroku thoroughly over the head and Kagome sighed. "I think what Miroku means is that we all want to help."

Kagome was smiling, but her heart was sorrowful. _I wonder if this priestess knew what she was getting into when she sealed that demon away. Her soul's been held captive for almost 60 years. That's longer that Inu-yasha was sealed._

Kagome was starring at Inu-yasha's back, but Inu-yasha was too distracted in his own thoughts to notice. He hadn't been able to look at her yet. _ I want to save her, _Kagome thought._ I bet that's what Inu-yasha's thinking too._

He was indeed thinking the same thing. Kagome knew him well.

"Do you feel that?"

"Feel what, Miroku?"

"That aura."

"We've been choking on that aura this whole time!"

"Not the demonic one. There's a new one now."

The all kept walking, but they all glanced around. Kagome was the second to catch it. "I can feel it. It's... calming."

"I can feel it too. We're close."

"Is it the spiritual aura of the priestess?"

"It has to be!"

Miroku smiled, his eyes relaxed. "It's one of the greatest energies I've ever encountered. I've never felt anything so soothing."

"Me neither." Sango agreed.

"Ooo!" Shippo cooed. "It's making me feel all fuzzy."

Sango looked down at Kilala purring and chirping happily. "I guess this priestess spiritual aura even calms demons. She must've been very powerful."

The shrine was in sight now at the end of the overgrown path. It was a simple shrine and surprisingly sturdy. Nothing had fallen over or collapsed, but the paint was fading and vines and other plants had climbed up its walls and beams. There was almost nothing in front of the door.

As they walked closer to it, the powerful demonic aura that had disturbed them so much as they came was now mixed with an incredibly soothing spiritual aura. The two did not cancel each other, but lingered in the air side by side.

They gathered at the bottom of the steps. The door ahead of them was large and heavy and ornately designed. The doorway was the clearest part of the whole outside of the shrine.

"You all ready?" Inu-yasha grumbled, having accepted a long time ago that the others were going to follow his every step.

"Right behind ya." Kagome smiled, adjusting her bow on her shoulder. She had thought ahead this time.

Inu-yasha took the first few steps right up to the door and he froze, completely rigid, almost frightened.

"What is it, Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked, walking up behind him.

"It's- It's Kikyo."

"What?" They all said in unison. "That's impossible!"

"I can smell her- No. No, wait. It's not her."

"What do you mean 'it's not her'?"

"It's-" Inu-yasha was still shocked and at a loss for words. "It's like when I met you, Kagome. You smelled so much like her."

Inu-yasha's eyes bore into the chipping paint on the door. "But I don't smell any graveyard soil."

Shippo was looking at the door incredibly frightened. "You don't think someone cloned her again, do you?"

"No, that's silly," Kagome soothed, still confused herself.

None of them had much time to think before Inu-yasha, over come with curiosity, busted the duel doors open.

There were no windows in the shrine of any kind and very little light broke through the canopy outside so very little light was coming in through the doorway, but the shrine was filled with its own blinding light.

Their eyes adjusted slowly to this bright new light, but they all seemed to see it at once. The source of the light was an intricate, circular design on the floor that glowed brilliantly. It was what was in the middle of that circle that really caught their eye, though.

At first it looked like nothing more that a heap of red and white clothe, then they noticed long, night black hair strewn across the floor. It was a girl all curled up in a ball. Her hair wove in and out of the writing inside the circle. She had no bow or arrow as Kikyo would have had, but she did have something resembling a walking stick next to her.

"Is that her?" Shippo asked. His loud, childish tone seemed to break the spell. The heap on the floor began to stir. Inu-yasha was useless in his shock. The others were all quite frozen too, no one willing to move, except Kagome. When the heap on the ground began to pull itself up, its hair sweeping off the floor and beginning to part. Kagome kneeled down to the girl, a little worried. "Are you alright?"

The girl's head tilts and her hair parted to reveal her face. She had an inhuman glow and her deep brown eyes shined. She must've been about eighteen. There was too much hair still in her face to really see it. The woman, barely being able to lift herself up, had a groggy look to her. She was smiling pleasantly, but her eyes were still partially closed. She looked as if she thought she was still asleep. "Why, Kikyo. Here I was thinking I was asleep for decades and here you stand before me seeming to have barely aged one." The woman began to fix her stance, shifting her weight, preparing to stand. She was moving heavily, sleepily, but gracefully inside her circle that seemed to be made of light. "Now this truly is a mystery."

Kagome managed to get herself to stand. No one else had moved yet. They had less a reason to move now than they did when they first entered.

The woman was on her feet now, her torso hanging over as she began to dust herself off. A hand that seemed made of light swept the ground to pick up the thing that had seemed like a walking stick and she finally began to straighten. All of her seemed to be made of light.

As her spine began to set and her hair began to fall out of her face, her grogginess and dream state started faded way into something of a more serious, almost sincere glance. "Unless, of course, you're not Kikyo."

Now they were all frozen. This woman looked almost exactly like Kikyo. Her eyes were the same deep brown, shaped with a sincere smile. Her hair was the same raven black, long, silken, and perfectly straight. They stood the same, their voices were practically the same, and what's more, this woman knew Kikyo.

Miroku was charmed into speaking first. "Are you the priestess of Champion's Shrine?"

"Is that what they call it now?" She acted very casually and amiably, with a practiced calm as if she still thought she was dreaming. "One would think I'd have been here for centuries with all the names it's had."

The woman smiled a bit, her mood remaining the same, all very sweet, making her seem less and less like Kikyo since the Kikyo they all knew was very serious all of the time. She began to sooth the others out of their frozen state. "Have you come here to challenge the demon?"

Inu-yasha was finally beginning to loosen up, as was Kagome, but it was Miroku, again, that spoke. "We've come to free your soul from this fate."

Still very casual, the girl smiled and tilted her head slight like it was a wonderful dream while it lasted, "wouldn't that be nice." Her voice had the tiniest bit of laugh and the tiniest hint of a tear, but nothing more. There was a strange pause where the simple little phrase began to sink into everyone's hearts. They couldn't help but feel pity. She must've heard it so many times. Many warriors must've pledged themselves to her beauty and not come out alive. "But is it worth it?" she asked.

"We also fight," Inu-yasha started, fighting his own emotions and once again sounding like his own angry and stubborn self by the time he finished the sentence, "for the memory of Kikyo."

This touched the girl. She had never heard that one before. They could not tell what in her face changed, but her smile seemed painful. She turned her head and looked away with a smirk. "Now that is a truly noble cause."

She lifted her head, and her staff and a single tear floated through the air and struck her circle of light, causing it to glow brighter and force everyone to take a step back. The woman's body glowed and her hair lifted off her back. "I warn you now that the demon you face is not the original. Both man and demon have come to this shrine to fight. The greater evil does not leave this shrine." There was a pause. "Good-luck."

The woman sidestepped and instantly vanished. The light of the circle vanished as well. The doors they had walked through closed behind them and they were cast into darkness. The only light now was the red glow of the seals on a second set of doors that they had not seen before for they were behind the spirit of the priestess. They were immense; greater than the doors they had walked through, but these doors were not faded in the least bit.

In the burst of flame as each seal vanished was incinerated, the dark silhouette of the girl that had once been made of light could be seen, the flame reflecting off her eyes, fog beginning to seem out from behind her from the door she stood before. She vanished in the mist and soon the shrine was filled with it; a fog so thick that when Inu-yasha pulled out his Tetsusaiga, he could barely see it. He couldn't see Kagome or the others either. "Kagome! Kagome, where are you?"

He grew more and more tense. "There's an extremely powerful demon here."

Everyone was separated from the other. Miroku backed up and found a wall. "That priestess must've been extremely power for her spirit to seal away such an aura."

There was an evil cackle, one they could all here. It was a thick, boisterous, and masculine voice. The demon laughed. "Ahaha! I've been released! Once again I can feed on the living!"

Inu-yasha threw his head. "Feh! Not while I'm here!"

The demons voice came again, but from a totally different direction. "Hmm, I can smell them."

Inu-yasha was turning around, trying to find the demon. "Damn! This fog is messing up the scents."

Another laugh came, but from yet another direction. "What's this? Mortals? Where is the one that sealed me?"

This sent Inu-yasha into a panic. If the demon confused Kagome for the priestess, the demon would find Kagome before he did.

Kagome was shouting for Inu-yasha. Everyone was shouting for everyone else and they hear everyone else's voices from strange directions. When they looked about them everyone kept thinking they saw someone for a brief instant in the fog, but there was nothing. "We have to get rid of this fog."

"Damn." Inu-yasha scowled to himself. "I don't know where anyone is. I can't blow away the fog with my wind scar 'cause someone might be in the way."

"Sango!" Miroku shouted, feeling along the wall. "Blast. This fog distorts sight and sound." He was about to attempt to think of something clever when the prayer beads on his wrists struck a corner. He lifted his hand to his face so he could see it and starred at it for a moment, pondering the pros and cons. _The fog isn't poisonous and there's not Samyosho here._ Miroku almost smiled. _This thing finally came in handy again!_ Miroku pointed his hand to the ceiling and whipped the beads off it. "Wind Tunnel!"

The fog began to vanish at an alarming pace. The rafters began to shake and ancient dust flew up from the floor, but the shrine stood strong as the fog began to vanish and heads began to appear above the fog.

The demon was human in appearance and armored. His armor and skin were gray and shiny and he had a dangerous amount of hair in his face. The demon hissed angrily, his pupils purely white and angry. "Disgusting human! No demon or mortal can best the great-"

Sango cut off the demon by whipping her boomerang at him, forcing him to hop, nimbly to the side to dodge it. There was sacred arrow to meet him, of course. While half his torso got blown away and the demon was glaring at Kagome with a burning hatred, Inu-yasha lifted the Tetsusaiga above his head. "Oh, yeah? Well how about a half demon? WIND SCAR!"

With a mighty swing, the attacked incinerated the demon before it even had a chance to introduce itself and it left that world filled with anger, as it should have.

The priestess of the shrine waved her staff over the spot where the demon had fallen, striking the ground once, then she moved to the front door which was once again open. Her smile lit up the morning. "Well, that's done. Shall we return home?" Without waiting for a response, the woman turned on her heel and strolled out the door.

-------------------------------------------------------

Did you see that coming? I tried real hard to you wouldn't but I don't think I tried hard enough. You didn't saw all of it, right? By the way, I didn't feel like looking up cool names, which is why the demon got whacked before he could say his name. It'd be something with '-maru' and you know it.

-------------------------------------------------------

I do not own Inu-yasha, but if I did I'd make sure they finished the anime series!

------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your generous offer of assistance, Damki. I did activate the anonymous thing so if I get more reviews now I owe you a cookie. I love reviews.

I'll give a cyber pat on the back and credibility to whoever can think of a cooler summary. You get my whole story to think of one since this will be here forever!

-------------

THANK YOU! COME AGAIN!


	4. How She Lived

**Twice Lost, Once Found**

An Inu-yasha fanfic

_A story of a special someone who did not exist in their lives long enough to mention._

**Chapter Four: How She Lived**

The group was all very confused. A minute ago this priestess had been standing inside a circle of light, glowing brightly, a spirit that had lingered in a shrine for 60 years. Now she was strolling out of the shrine and down the path they had come down to free her.

They all ran to catch up with her, not that she was walking very fast. They all looked extremely confused and were all about to say something, but then she looked as if she was going to say something, but then she was interrupted by a feeble shout. "Priestess Koemi!"

They all looked up to see the old man had hobbled over to meet them. The priestess looked at him for a moment and then smiled brightly at him. "Good Sir Rojika? I dare say you've gotten old!"

The old man smiled, laughing a little old man laugh. "I have grand-children your age now."

"Oh," the priestess smiled. "I'm glad that you married. You sound like you've lived well."

The old man chuckled at her, his squinting eyes smiling more than they ever had. "Everyone fled the village after you disappeared and left behind all their good farmland."

The priestess laughed, a gentle, happy laugh. One that Kikyo never had the chance to laugh. "So then you moved in, eh? That's so like you, Rojika."

The old man was chortling and began to lead her back to the little village. "I knew you weren't dead, but no one believed me. Your sister left the village and everyone followed her."

The priestess nodded, not looking sad in the least bit. "That's what I expected. I would not have wanted her to remain here forever."

The old man looked up at her, smiling hopefully. "You'll stay a minute longer, won't you? I'll prepare a fine meal for you!"

She laughed again. "I would love a home-cooked meal, good Rojika. Thank you."

They were all invited to the meal. It was a small feast of climactic proportions. Their great protector had risen from the dead.

There was much talking between the natives and their newborn priestess. There was much questioning and reminiscing and laughter. It was truly strange to see some one who looked so much like Kikyo laugh so much.

The group didn't get to say much to her until the meal was coming to an end. She was scratching behind Kilala's ears when she turned to Kagome. "You, young miss with the sacred arrows, who are you?"

Kagome almost jumped at being suddenly addressed. "Uh, Kagome Higurashi."

"Hmm..." The priestess Koemi leaned back slightly with her tea. She shifted her sights to Inu-yasha. "My rescuer, you mentioned Kikyo, correct?"

Inu-yasha was a bit flustered being talked at by a woman that looked so much like his beloved Kikyo. He decided to respond in his angry tone to cover his blush. "Yeah, what of it?"

"How did you know her?"

Inu-yasha was about to shout something, but nothing came out. What could he say? That he wanted to kill her, but ended up falling in love with her? Could he skip that part and say she had betrayed him and pinned him to a tree for 50 years, which he knew was not entirely true. No. He couldn't talk about Kikyo like that. He couldn't blame her. He never truly could.

Kagome saved him. "She used to live in a village not far from here."

"Used to?" Lady Koemi's gaze was shifted back to Kagome, her face curious.

Inu-yasha took up the response. "She died 50 years ago."

Koemi's face locked up, waiting for Inu-yasha to finish. She knew there was more to this story and Inu-yasha couldn't seem to keep himself to hide it from her. "Her body was reincarnated by a demon witch. But now that's dead too."

Kagome wasn't sure how to comfort him and Koemi's smile became painful again, as if there was something she couldn't bring herself to tell him. Inu-yasha was easy enough for someone like her to read. She didn't need him to tell her anything else to guess some important parts Inu-yasha had not expressed in his words.

"What about Kaede?" Lady Koemi asked.

"She's still living at that village." Kagome responded.

Koemi's tray was taken away and Koemi picked up her staff/walking stick and stood. "Good. Take me there."

Koemi was outside with her sandals back on before anyone knew what to do. Koemi thanked Rojika and his family, promising that she'd visit, and was already walking to the path when the group caught up with her. They were all walking together back to Kaede's village when Inu-yasha, now angry with this Kikyo look-a-like (but not really), demanded some answers. "How the heck do **you** know Kikyo or Kaede?"

Priestess Koemi, strolling along the path pleasantly, said, "Kaede, and Kikyo for that matter, are my younger sisters."

No one knew what to do with Koemi after that. They were all confused, baffled and more confused. Questions followed. Koemi could already guess what they'd ask and she answered them in a casual, expectant manner, though her voice had faded into a somber, almost regretful tone.

"When Kikyo was a child and Kaede could barely sit up, a powerful demon attacked our village. Our parents were very powerful. We use to travel from town to town assisting others, but when Kaede was to be born we settled in that village we just left. There was a short time of peace, but then, most likely lured by our spiritual power, we were attacked and our parents were killed."

The others blinked. This was the first time they had ever thought about Kikyo having a family.

Koemi continued. "In my youth and in my anger I vowed to avenge them and to seal the evil away." A remnant of a sigh that she had never gotten to express slid up from her lungs. "I told Kikyo that she had to be strong for me and protect everyone for me. My duty was now hers to uphold."

She glanced at the faded path she now walked. "I sealed the demon away in that shrine that was my parents'. I placed myself into an ageless sleep and there I remained as demons and warrior came and perished until you came to free me."

There was a silence, but it lingered only a moment, for Kagome brought it upon herself to share the story of Kikyo and the sacred jewel, even of Inu-yasha. She told Koemi of Kikyo's commitment to her duty and to her people. _Kikyo_, Kagome realized, _must've taken all of Koemi's last request to heart._

"I've always regretted it," Koemi whispered, her voice fading away with her sister's memory. "Almost the instant after I said it I regretted it. I should've known that it would have such an effect on my precious Kikyo. How terrible it was of me to ask something so great of someone who had been so young."

Koemi's eyes were beginning to steady again on the path ahead of her. "So many regrets. I've had times of regretting my vow of vengeance, for I know mother and father would never have wanted me to live my life like I did, or leave my sisters behind, but I would never go back on a vow, even if it was one made in angry and sorrow."

Koemi's eyes were beginning to shine and tear, something they had never seen of Kikyo. Perhaps Koemi would've shed all her grief at that very instant, everything that had built up inside her over the last 60 years, everything that had tormented her in her never ending dream, but she was interrupted. A villager, one from Kaede's village, dropped his basket upon seeing them and immediately drops to his knees and bow to Koemi, thinking it was Lady Kikyo returned again from the dead.

Koemi smiled, her tears fading as she approached the villager and requested him to stand. The elderly man stood, him knees shaking before he turned and stumbled off, shouting that their dear Kikyo has returned once again to them.

Koemi had barely properly stood when the villager ran off announcing her arrival. When she had stood, Koemi watched the elderly man as he ran. "For such a reaction fifty years after her death, I'd have to say that these villagers cared very much for my sister, Kikyo."

Inu-yasha's voice never chocked up, but it sounded as if it as about to. "Kikyo did very much for this village when she was still alive. Her ashes continued to bring them hope when they were there."

"It's alright," Koemi said, turning to Inu-yasha with a smile, saving him before his voice broke. "You don't have to say anymore. I understand..."

She smiled at Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kilala, and the bike before turning back to the path, picking up the basket that the elderly villager had abandoned. "Shall we go?"

-------------------------------------------------------

Who guessed it? Raise your hand if you guessed it! Now review and tell me if you raised your hand. I made up a sister! YEAH! This actually has an interesting story, but I'll save that for the last chapter, which should be the next one.

-------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, Inu-yasha is not mine. I'm sorry. I truly am. If it were mine I would've made Kikyo less of a jerk. I don't hate her, but she can be very annoying.

------------------------------------------------------

Thank you once again, Damki, for being my only reviewer. You're so sweet. This is just a mini story with a strange, cliché-sounding summary so I suppose I can't expect too many people to read and review me. Is there a record somewhere of how many people have read a story?

Perhaps I should look into that.

-------------

THANK YOU! COME AGAIN!


	5. Reincarnation

**Twice Lost, Once Found**

An Inu-yasha fanfic

_A story of a special someone who did not exist in their lives long enough to mention._

**Chapter Five: Reincarnation**

Kaede almost fainted with fright when she saw the young woman walking with Inu-yasha, Kagome and the others. The villagers had been telling the truth. This was her sister, not simply a fake body and fragments of a broken soul, returned to her after all these years.

Koemi stopped a few yards from her youngest sister, her smile great, but sad. "Sister Kaede. I missed your whole life, didn't I?"

Kaede was at a loss for words. She was a little bit skeptical since Koemi's priestess outfit had more red and she had confused others for her sister before, but this was pretty undeniably her sister. "K-Kikyo? Is it really-"

Koemi's smile only grew brighter instead of becoming more painful. "No, dear sister. I am not Kikyo."

Kaede had no idea how to respond. Even when Kikyo's body was brought back, Kikyo had not called her sister.

Koemi approached Kaede. "I'm not surprised that you have forgotten me. You are right not remember me. You could not yet stand when I abandoned you and Kikyo."

Koemi placed the basket she had been carrying down and kneeled on one knee before the elderly Kaede. "I've come here to beg your forgiveness for having wronged you and our sister and I wish you to witness my vow that I will never do it again."

The old and hardened Kaede looked down at the down cast head of one that looked so much like the sister she had always adored and who had been stolen from her too soon.

The villagers were all waiting in anticipation for what Kaede would do. Kaede, herself, was waiting for what she'd do. She looked up at Inu-yasha and Kagome. Kagome smiled and nodded, but Inu-yasha crossed his arms, looking cross himself, and shouted. "She's telling the truth, you old bag."

A sweat dropped appeared on Kagome's forehead as Inu-yasha shattered the beauty of the moment like always. "She had a very convincing story," she added.

Kaede looked at Kagome and then down to the woman kneeling before her. Kaede sighed a little and placed a hand on Koemi's head. "I shall let you explain yourself first, I suppose."

She could hear Koemi's slight laugh as the young woman looked up at her. "Of course. I'd expect no less."

They were all sitting in a circle, many others watching from a distance, as questions were answered and Koemi explained all of her story. It was an interesting one. Many parts of her story explained things about Kikyo.

When the demon had attacked their village, Koemi saw the demon kill her parents, and would've done something about it, but Kikyo was close behind her. Koemi had wrapped her arms around her sister and told her to put all of it behind her, the she was going to avenge their parents, and she did.

The original demon was killed within the first few years of it being sealed. It had been slain by another demon, seeking out demon's to devour to increase its own strength. Koemi's vow had been fulfilled, but she knew she couldn't willingly release this demon, so she sealed it away. The longer she remained there the stronger the demons became. If the one she sealed defeated its opponent, it grew stronger. If the opponent defeated the sealed one, then she sealed away the stronger being.

When asked why she didn't just kill the demon, Koemi laughed. Apparently she had never raised a hand against anything in her life. She merely had to will something to be pure to purifying it, her power approaching the strength of the Legendary Priestess Midoriko. Koemi could not kill. Kikyo had always been the one who had to do that for her. Since Koemi barely wished to harm the plants when she picked them, let alone demons, Kikyo had to be her bow. Since a very young age, Kikyo could purify objects through her hands, which allowed her to use things like sacred arrows. This meant, everyone assumed, that Koemi had been stronger than even Kikyo. Kikyo, most of the time, had to focus her energy into something for it to have an effect, where Koemi could simply will it. She admitted she was slightly out of practice, however.

"I wish-" Koemi started as the circle was beginning to shrink and there was only Lady Koemi, Lady Kaede and Inu-yasha left. "I wish I had been there for you two. Perhaps then Kikyo might've been happier."

Kaede sighed and Inu-yasha looked at Koemi with a tinge of anger. "Kikyo was happy. Sure life was hard, but it was hard for everyone and she was happy for what she had."

Kaede was happy for Inu-yasha support. "Kikyo always did her best so that the village could live peacefully. When the times were the worst, our happiness was her happiness and we were grateful for that."

Koemi remembered this. She would never forget it. Perhaps one day she would accept this answer, but for now the best she could give was a wounded smile for she still felt regret. She would not let go of this regret, just as Kikyo would not let go of her anger, for a long time to come. "Then I will have to take up what had I forced our sister to leave behind. I shall be the peoples' hope again as she was."

She smiled brightly at her elderly sister and her deceased sister's lover. "If that's all right with you."

They smiled the way stubborn people smiled. "We'd expect nothing less."

-------------------------------------------

**Epilogue**

"Kagome? May I ask you something?"

"Oh, yes, of course. What is it, Koemi?"

Koemi fingered over the lantern plants, shifting her weight on her knees in her kneeling position in the field. "How do you look so much like Kikyo?"

Kagome could've frozen up, almost dropping the herbs she had picked. It seemed like a reasonable question. She was actually surprised Koemi had not asked it before. "Well, I think I'm Kikyo's reincarnation."

"Reincarnation?" Koemi gasped in slight surprise. "Reincarnated so soon? That's interesting."

"Well..." Kagome rubbed the back of her head, not sure how much of what was going on she should explain. "Well, ya see, I came from a long line of priests and we've watched this shrine for generations. I had the Shikon Jewel inside my body, ya see, and one day a demon dragged me down the Bone Eaters Well."

"The Bone Eaters Well?" Koemi pondered this for a moment. "You mean that dry well in the woods back there? You came through that? From where?"

Kagome laughed to herself, not sure how to put this. "From here."

"From here? How could you have watched this shrine for generations when you're here now?"

"Well..." Kagome paused and decided to just come out with it. "I'm from about 500 years in the future."

Koemi just looked at her for a minute, neither of them saying anything until Koemi put a hand on Kagome's forehead and took Kagome's wrist in her other hand to check her pulse.

"No, no, really. I'm from the future. Ask Inu-yasha. He'll tell you all about it. He comes to get me most of the time."

"Alright then." Koemi shook her hair out, then tied the two separate hair ties back in as she pondered (her hair's long enough to require two ties). Koemi's face actually began to light up as she thought upon this new information. She plucked the Lantern plant and started giggling as she placed it in her basket and started to stand.

"What is it?" Kagome asked, standing as well and following her.

"Let me get this straight. You're from the future and you've come from a long line of priests that have watch this shrine of yours that's in this same location for generations."

"Yes. In fact that tree over there is in my yard."

Koemi nodded, fitting the pieces together in her head. "And you are Kikyo's reincarnation?"

"Yes. That's what they say."

"Which means that you're related to her somehow, right?"

"Y- uhh..." Kagome wasn't sure what to say to that. "Ma- maybe... I don't know."

"Well if Kikyo crossed the river (a.k.a. if Kikyo died) before she had kids and Kaede never had any kids, who you think you're the descendent of, then?"

Kagome stopped, thinking. She didn't have to think very long because Koemi turned to grin at her, smiling with a girlish charm.

Kagome paused, collecting her emotions, and then burst out into joyful smiling. "Wow! You really think you could be my ancestor?"

Koemi smirked the way an adolescent would. "I guess I'll have to be real careful about choosing your forefather, won't I?"

Kagome giggled and as they headed back to the village, Koemi looked up at the sky and thought to herself: _I wonder if Inu-yasha has a brother._

-------------------------------------------------------

Aha! Don't worry; Koemi and Sesshoumaru don't get together for all of you who are worried. It was a joke that set itself up nicely.

Look! See! See what I did? Now Kaede's village has a nice, young priestess who can help them, Kagome's got an ancestor, if Kagome goes away in the end Koemi can raise Shippo, and perhaps Koemi will marry someone of wealth and bring happiness to the village. YEAH! I just explained the different aspects of Kikyo's personality too. I wish I could draw this instead of write it. It works so much better in the pictures in my head.

-------------------------------------------------------

Inu-yasha's not mine, but it doesn't matter 'cause the story's done anyway!

------------------------------------------------------

Damki… thank you for reading my chapters and putting effort into it. You are super cool. I'd say more, but I've been praising you since chapter 1.

-------------

Thank you for taking part in Koemi's adventure with me. I'm happy you could be a part of it.


End file.
